Submission to Truth's Authority

In Luke 20:1-8, the chief priests and teachers of the law demonstrated their arrogance when they refused to answer Jesus, for their primary concern was preserving their power, and with either response they could give, they knew consequences awaited them. So they avoided the question altogether.
However, it is the humble that the Lord crowns with salvation (Psalm 149:4).
The scribes thus let self-preservation and self-exaltation guide them, rather than humility and truth.

Jesus, knowing their intentions, knew that to give them the truth would be to simply give them more opportunities for rejection.

"Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." (v8)

It would seem that we hinder ourselves in our pursuit of God when we don't make earnest effort to let go of our works ethic default, for otherwise our discourse with Him will make allowance for a contingency plan with the self.
We just automatically smuggle in a sense of self in our planning and in our (His) accomplishments.
This is to say that we can do nothing apart from God, and nothing in His service apart from the Holy Spirit.

What I came away with in my study this morning is that we more readily submit to Truth when it doesn't compromise our standing.

The challenge to the world is this: If all things were created by God, and in Him all things hold together, then God is the author and maintainer of reality. Truth is that which coheres with reality. Truth is coherent and only in God does it cohere.